Anomalous and negative reflection of Lamb waves in mode conversion

Mode conversion is an important feature of wave propagation used in ultrasonic nondestructive testing with Lamb waves. When a wave packet with a given central frequency, and a correspondent central wavenumber, impinges on the free edge of a plate, the reflected wave generally is a weighed combination of all the possible modes compatible with the given frequency. Under particular conditions, only one wave packet is reflected with a distinct central wavenumber compared to the incident one. In such a case, according to Snell's law, the reflection angle is different from the incident one (anomalous reflection). In this article, experimental results are presented on anomalous reflection on a free edge of a thin plate of a Lamb wave packet; moreover, experimental results are reported on a Lamb wave packet that is reflected at an angle lying on the same side, with respect to the normal direction, of the impinging wave (negative reflection). Negative reflection of Lamb waves has been obtained through mode conversion taking place at the free edge of a thin plate of constant thickness: More precisely, a symmetric S1 Lamb mode has been converted into the same mode but with phase velocity antiparallel to group velocity, so obtaining the so-called backward-propagating Lamb wave packet. © 2012 American Physical Society.